Fiordland Facts

Fiordland National Park - a few facts:

• Fiordland NP is 1.25 million hectares , or 3 million acres in size,

• The steep, jumbled topography, rugged coastline, dense forest and challenging climate results in a region that has largely shunned the development of roads and towns,

• World Heritage status is given to areas throughout the world which deserve special protection and recognition because of their unique characteristics. Fiordland was designated a World Heritage Area in 1986 because of its superlative natural features, its exceptional beauty and its role in demonstrating the earth’s evolutionary history,

• Fiordland NP is one of the wettest places in the world, with Milford Sound averaging more than 6m a year!

• The coolest months are between May and August, when daytime temperatures range from 4 to 10 degrees Celsius. The winter sun sits at a low angle and frost produces ice on sunless valley floors.

• November to February are the warmest months, and in sunny sheltered places, temperatures can rise above 25 degrees Celsius.

• On either side of the road to Milford, the landscape is cloaked in cool temperate rainforest, jungle-dense and complete with vines, climbers, perching plants and ferns, including tree ferns.

• The predominant tree species is the silver beech (tawhai), which prefers the wet conditions of Fiordland.
  

• Fiordland lies next to a dramatic fracture in the earth’s crust - a boundary of the Pacific and Australian Plates. The Alpine Fault marks the place where they meet, with the Australian Plate diving beneath the Pacific Plate (the Alpine Fault traces down the West Coast of the South Island and leaves the land near the entrance to Milford Sound). In this collision, the land on the Pacific Plate is being heaved up to form the Southern Alps.
  

• Wildlife - New Zealand Fur Seals, Fiordland Crested Penguins, Blue Penguins and Bottlenose Dolphins can all be found thoroughout the fiord.

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